


To Serve A "Chocolate" Cornet

by stingray5555



Series: A "Chocolate" Cornet [2]
Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Torture, Eye Gouging, Fucked Up, Gen, Sadism, Torture, Why Did I Write This?, flaying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-07 17:35:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19856239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stingray5555/pseuds/stingray5555
Summary: Saya's doomed bakery finally starts getting its customers back with the help of Chisato. However, new trouble stirs for Saya when a close friend of Chisato finds out something she was not supposed to find out.





	To Serve A "Chocolate" Cornet

**Author's Note:**

> Please examine the tags of this story so you know exactly what to expect. If you don't want any of that, don't read it. But, if you genuinely want to proceed, no one's stopping you.
> 
> As requested by a comment in the previous work.

The bakery was beginning to get its customers back.

In front of the bakery stood a folding sign advertising the bakery’s new “special chocolate” products. That Sunday morning, the establishment was once again filled with customers, a scene that Saya had not witnessed in months. People were actually enjoying her new chocolate recipe! Orders were practically flying left and right as she struggled with fulfilling every single one on time. Even her little sister Sana was assisting her; while Saya ran everywhere to prepare every order, Sana took charge of the counter and acted as a waiter in order to bring their food to their tables. However, little did they know that with every bite they took out of a chocolate cornet, every sip from a cup of hot chocolate, or every remaining crumb of chocolate chip cookie that they licked from their fingertips, they were taking in along a part of someone.

Saya remembered the phone call with her schoolmate Aya on the other side of the line that same morning. She sounded like she was calling from a police station, based on the intermittent sirens in the background. Never had she heard a voice sound so despondent in the entirety of her life.

"Please, Saya-chan…” She could definitely tell that the girl was sobbing. “Please tell me you've seen Chisato-chan…"

Saya heaved a sigh before answering “I’m sorry, Aya-senpai; she hadn’t dropped by the bakery recently…”

“Oh… oh no-”

The sound of a girl crying could be heard in the background before the phone switched to monotone beeping. 

She did not want to admit. Admit that it was her fault Chisato was missing. Admit that she drugged her and nailed her to a table. Admit that she extracted the fluids from her in the most inhumane methods possible. Admit that she chopped her body up and left her remains somewhere never to be found.

She imagined if she did turn herself in. What would become of her in prison alongside the other criminal scum of the country? She'd likely suffer the same fate as Chisato or even worse. Moreso, what would become of her dearest family afterward? Her father and mother would likely disappear from the face of the earth from shame and dishonor. And her siblings…

But it was okay. Nobody would suspect it was her. Who would ever think that Saya Yamabuki, the kind, caring, and innocuous girl whose smile would brighten anyone's day, be able to hurt anybody, let alone kill? In fact, has anyone ever seen Saya lay a finger on the people she hated or disliked if she even had enemies?

_Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it._

After giving Sana a tray to serve, she spotted among her sea of happy customers a depressed-looking figure sitting in the same spot Chisato had been previously. The purple-haired girl was slouching over the table, hardly moving a muscle. Upon paying further attention she was quick to recognize the girl based on her unique appearance and clothing. 

Kaoru Seta. Chisato's childhood friend. 

"She must be lamenting Chisato-san's disappearance," she thought, handing Sana a tray to be served. "But why could she be here…?"

Coincidentally, it was Kaoru's order that was being delivered by Sana, as Saya saw her sister placing the tray containing a cup of coffee and a chocolate cornet on the table she was seated at. "Of course, the chocolate cornets," she told herself.

"Thank you," Kaoru spoke without even shooting a glimpse at Sana, before languidly opening and pouring the contents of a small packet of creamer into the coffee cup. 

Saya was handling another customer's order when Sana returned the tray to the counter. She tugged on her shirt and pointed at Kaoru. 

"Onee-chan…" she frowned. "One of our customers doesn't look happy…" 

Saya patted her back. "It's okay, Sana-chan. Leave her be."

After taking a bite from the chocolate cornet, Kaoru's dismal expression turned into a gleeful smile. The rich flavor of the partially melted chocolate burst inside of her mouth sending her taste buds to bliss. "This tastes absolutely marvelous!" she exclaimed licking her lips and taking another bite. "Such an exquisitely-made amalgamation of cocoa goodness!" 

Once she was halfway done, Kaoru spotted something glistening on the floor under the seat in front of her. She bent over to pick it up, and when she examined the object more closely, her heart leapt.

“This…” she gasped, turning the object around. “This is her phone! What is it doing here?”

While Saya was arranging the bills and coins in the cash register marveling at the amount of money her bakery had made that morning, Kaoru walked up to her and set the phone on the counter. “Saya-chan! Has she been here?!” she blurted without waiting for her to take notice of her.

"H-Huh?!" she exclaimed startled by her sudden appearance. All it took was one momentary glance at the object placed in front of her for Saya to realize she had made a grave mistake. She absolutely forgot to retrieve Chisato's phone from the floor after she fell unconscious on the table! She felt her heart rapidly beating under her chest, hoping that Kaoru did not immediately link her to the disappearance.

Taken aback by her unanticipated response, she stood up straight and cleared her throat. “Oh, my sincere apologies for my sudden outburst. Has Chisato been here?”

"Chisato-san?” she asked, relieved that the worst had not happened. “Why so?" 

"Her poor, poor soul has been gone since yesterday! Oh, what must have happened to her…" Kaoru let out a heavy, mournful sigh. "Her family and band members have been asking around everywhere!" 

"I have not seen her come here yesterday, though," she lied. “Or even in the past few days.”

Kaoru slammed her hands on the counter and looked into Saya's eyes directly. "But this is her phone… s-so she must have been here, right?!" 

Saya only had a few seconds to think of a proper response. “I-I think it was father handling the bakery yesterday since I spent most of the day at the live house practicing with Poppin’ Party. You can ask him if you want, but he’s currently out today…”

“Ah,” Kaoru’s tensed up body slowly relaxed. “Might I ask when he’ll be back?”

“Umm, I think he’ll be back later this afternoon. I’ll ask him if he’s seen Chisato-san for you. Then maybe I’ll call you to tell you what he said.”

A gentle smile formed on Kaoru’s face. “Thank you so much, my little kitten. You’ve helped me assuage my endless anxiety. Oh, poor Chisato better be safe…”

Kaoru returned to her seat, slipping her best friend’s phone inside her pocket. She continued to eat her new favorite pastry while she gazed at her cup of coffee that she unknowingly emptied already. Meanwhile, Saya was talking to herself trying to come up with a plan to keep Kaoru quiet because now that she knew that the Yamabuki bakery was likely the last place Chisato went to, she would report that information to the police, which would divert attention to her bakery. And if they conduct an investigation and discover the containers of blood stored in the refrigerator downstairs, then they snagged themselves a suspect. 

She had to keep Kaoru’s mouth shut somehow. And quick.

"Saya-chan," she called out, raising her hand up to get her attention. "Please get me another cup of your sumptuous brew."

"Coming," she replied, before realizing that this was the perfect opportunity to silence her. There were other people in the bakery, so she could not use the same drugs she used on Chisato for that would attract too much attention. Instead, she opted for a heavy dose of laxatives mixed into her coffee. Once Kaoru felt her stomach churn, she would ask for the nearest bathroom which Saya would say that it was located in her kitchen. When she manages to lure her down into the lower floor, where nobody from above could hear anything that occurs there, one swift blow to the head should knock her out.

“Hopefully Kaoru-san is an idiot,” she snickered sending the contaminated coffee out for Sana to serve.

Once the coffee had been delivered, all Saya had to do now is wait. Now that it was nine-thirty in the morning, well over three hours since she and Sana started working, customers had already thinned out, and only a few people remained inside the establishment. Exhausted and with nothing to do, Sana sat down on a table and began eating a chocolate cornet that she took from the display shelf.

“Mmm!” she beamed, sipping out some of the sweet, delicious chocolate. “So good! How did she make this?”

“I ain’t telling,” Saya giggled to herself hearing her sister’s gleeful remarks. “Right, I need to send you home. Don’t want any disturbances while I deal with Kaoru-san.”

She walked over and sat beside her sister, giving her a nice long rub on the head. “You did really good today, Sana-chan! Go home now; you deserve some rest.”

“Thank you, onee-chan!” she beamed. “Also, I really, really love your chocolate cornets! Can I bring home some? Please?”

“Sure! Let me just place them in a bag for you.”

After watching her sister run home with a paper bag filled with her blood delicacies, Saya took a seat beside Kaoru, who had just taken the last bite out of her own chocolate cornet. 

“Anything wrong, my little kitten?” Kaoru asked looking at her.

“Do you want to talk?” she asked clasping her hands in front of her. “It hurts me to see you worrying like this, Kaoru-san.”

“No problem,” she replied just because she also did not want to look so pitiful to the baker girl. Saya nodded and thought of a topic to start the conversation.

“Well, can you tell me a bit about Chisato-san? I do know she’s one of your closest friends.”

“Sure,” she responded, raising her chin and looking above. “Chisato and I have known each other since we were little. As the great bard once said, ‘Words are easy, like the wind, but faithful friends are hard to find.’ Daily visits to the local park were our favorite pastime. I vividly remember the numerous times where we’d eat popsicles while sitting on park benches chattering and laughing until her mother would come and scold Chi-chan for staining her white summer dress with popsicle juice!”

“Chi-chan? That’s a cute nickname. What did she call you?”

“She used to call me Kao-chan. By the way, please don’t call me that…”

She giggled. “Don’t worry, ‘Kao-chan’ doesn’t fit a big girl like you. Anyway, what happened when she grew older?”

Kaoru nodded. “Chi-chan remained a beauteous girl throughout her childhood days. The sweetest apple on the topmost bough. Perfect for a career in the arts.”

“She acted when she was younger, right?”

“Correct. Played her roles so elegantly, so magnificently; superlative over her colleagues.”

Saya suddenly started laughing. “Didn’t she mainly star in those cheesy dramas?”

Kaoru grimaced. “Well… that is true…”

She made an impression while continue to chuckle heartily. “Oh, look at me; I’m crying, weeping, bawling! So elegantly, so magnificently!” 

Kaoru let out a suppressed laugh. “She wouldn't have been doing that all the time…”

“Hehe…” she quieted down. 

Feeling something shifting inside her, Kaoru bent over slightly while clutching her stomach. “Err, may I ask a question, Saya-chan?”

“Huh? Go on.”

“Does this place have a restroom? My wretched bowels have gotten quite agitated.” 

Saya smiled. “Yep. Just follow me.”

She escorted Kaoru inside her kitchen, where she was awed by how spacious the place was. On multiple countertops, assorted bread were laid out on aluminum sheets in different trays, straight out of the oven ready to be eaten. Utensils and other baking apparatuses that were being dried lined metal racks while those that were clean were neatly tucked away in their respective drawers. A large wooden surface sat in the middle of everything; the workbench where Saya would knead and prepare all the dough she needed for her pastries. A glass mixing bowl filled with chocolate sat on top of the workbench, beside a small plastic pipette with tiny drops of crimson liquid still adhered to the inside. Saya spotted the unclean pipette and prompted Kaoru down the steps to the basement, hoping she had not caught sight of it.

"That room over there," she said, pointing at a door that she knew led only to a small storage closet where cleaning materials such as brooms and mops were kept. 

"Thank you," she replied rushing inside and closing the door. 

Before Kaoru would realize that she had been duped, Saya procured a small metal pan from a metal shelf and stationed herself beside the closet. She held the handle of the pan tightly, raising it high above the air readying a strike, and waited for her to exit.

"That was just a closet, Saya-chan-" 

Hearing the door open and seeing Kaoru's figure, Saya brought down the side of the pan onto her head as powerfully as she could. Bang. The ringing sound of vibrating steel echoed across the basement before a loud thud brought the room to silence. She placed the pan back on the shelf and began fishing Kaoru's pockets for Chisato's phone. Once she found it, she put it in her pocket. There was nothing else of interest aside from her wallet with a few coins and several cards, so she pocketed the coins and left the cards inside. 

"Now what do I do with you," she whispered, staring at the unmoving body lying face-down on her floor with her hands on her hips before looking at the wooden table in the center of the room, the same table where her previous victim had lain. “You’re too tall to fit on the table…”

Saya decided to wait for evening before doing anything else. She still had a bakery to manage, after all. She rummaged through the bakery and found a window curtain large enough to wrap Kaoru’s body in several layers of strong woven fabric. Keeping her face exposed she put a rolled-up table napkin inside her mouth and tied her handkerchief around it making sure that there was no way she could call for help. She fastened her wrists and ankles together and secured the curtain around her body with yarn she occasionally used for hanging streamers and other decorations for the bakery. Once that was all done, Saya dragged and left Kaoru inside the closet where she went in, like burying a newly embalmed mummy inside its tomb. She did not want to risk Kaoru being free like last time with Chisato.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she told a waiting customer in line as she got back to the register. “A cup of coffee and a chocolate cornet, coming right up.”

To Saya’s utmost relief, nobody came by asking for either Kaoru or Chisato the entire workday. Additionally, nobody even bothered to ask how she made her chocolate taste much better. With how busy she was that day attending to her now flourishing business she almost forgot about the person bound in her basement, only remembering only once she had closed the bakery doors for the day after dusk and began her routine clean-up procedure. When she descended to the basement for an inventory check, she was met with a foul odor as if sewage was backing up.

“Phew, what is that stench?” she scowled, pinching her nose.

Saya traced the smell to the closet, and when she opened the door thinking that a rat had died inside, she was aghast at the state her victim was in. Having poisoned her with laxatives, she knew Kaoru would have given up on holding her bowels in with how long she was stuck down here, so a soiled pair of pants was the worst she would had expected. However, Saya absolutely did not intend to leave her wallowing in a puddle of her own excrement.

“Urp,” she stepped back, retching from the intense fetor being exuded from the small room. “I-I’m so sorry, Kaoru-san… I did not mean to leave you like this…”

Sounds of moving fluid were suddenly heard coming from her purple-haired victim, followed by a gag before a powerful wave of vomit sprayed out of her nose, the only way out for the contents of her stomach. The scene was too abhorrent for Saya to watch, so she turned her head away while Kaoru finished.

“Oh my goodness…” she cringed, looking back at Kaoru whose head was now lying on a new puddle of whitish-brown puke, with bits of undigested food still stuck to her nostrils. Moments later, the new smell hit Saya, and in immense disgust, actually ran upstairs to the kitchen to vomit in the sink herself.

After braving herself to go back down again, as well as masking her nose with her apron, Saya pulled Kaoru out of the closet and into the open, leaving a trail of liquid brown feces behind her. Once she was exposed to the light, she gave Saya a vehement glare not only for kidnapping her but also for leaving her to writhe in her own filth. Seeing Kaoru’s irate expression was somehow funny for her. First, it was unusual for the flamboyant lady, and second, it was the only thing she could do in her binds.

“Stop looking at me like that!” she said trying to vex her even more. “You’re going to get wrinkles with how contorted your face looks!”

“Mmff!” she screamed under her gag, shaking violently to try and break free. “Mmf mff!”

“Fine, I’ll clean you up!”

Saya dampened a dish towel and proceeded to wipe Kaoru’s face first. “You know, despite the horrible, horrible smell and the disgusting mess you’ve made,” she muttered as she wiped off the filth off her face. “You’re still very, very charming. What is with you, Kaoru-san? All the girls from your school chasing after you every day… don’t you get tired of all that attention? Hmm, I wonder how the girls at Hanasakigawa would act if you studied there? Fufu, Rimi would definitely be your number one fan…”

She then leaned over so that her face was just inches atop Kaoru’s, her cold breath blowing against her skin. “But honestly, if I was given a chance, I wouldn’t mind being fondled by Kaoru-san~”

All of a sudden, Kaoru lurched forward and headbutted Saya, making her stagger to the side. “Ow!” she cried out, grasping her forehead in pain. “You’ll pay for that!”

Saya suddenly covered the wet towel around Kaoru’s nose and forced it tightly in place, effectively trying to drown her. For a full thirty seconds, the poor girl struggled, desperately trying to fill her lungs with air whilst choking on her own vomit. There was no mercy in Saya’s eyes as she did so and she even applied more pressure with each passing second. Finally, just before Kaoru slipped out of consciousness, she removed the towel and slapped her cheek, causing her to breathe again.

“How do you feel, Kaoru-san?” she asked, the tone of her voice becoming more ominous. “I’m in charge around here, so try not to hurt me again. Or it won’t be towels covering your face anymore.”

Kaoru slowly closed her eyes halfway and nodded gently, telling Saya she heard her loud and clear. Saya grinned and continued washing away the filth from the rest of her head. While she did so, her mind was already beginning to think of what exactly to do with her afterward. A few more containers of fresh human blood for use in her chocolate sounded good as she would then have practically double the supply. However, she did not want to do the same to Kaoru as she did to Chisato because that would simply be boring. Plus, she did not exactly fit on the table. Once Kaoru’s face was all cleaned up, Saya had formulated a plan in her head. If her victim wasn’t going to be too rowdy later on, she was going to have the easy way out: a good slashing of her throat with the blood dripping out into a container underneath. Her reason for giving Kaoru such a chance unlike Chisato was because of the extra suffering she had to endure the whole day. But if she became too agitated with her, she was going to try and do something much more macabre. Her sadistic desires wished for the latter.

“So, Kaoru-san,” she spoke up, untying the handkerchief and removing the piece of cloth embedded in her mouth. “Let’s talk. Ask me anything.”

After a fit of coughing, Kaoru shouted: “What is the meaning of this?! Why in heaven’s name did you do this to me?!”

“Because I can’t let you tell the world about what you know about Chisato-san.”

“W-What I know? All I did was tell you about her!”

“No, you idiot. You found her phone lying on the floor of my bakery: the Yamabuki Bakery. Isn’t that crucial evidence for her disappearance?”

Kaoru’s eyes shot open. “S-So are you telling me-”

“Yep,” Saya’s mouth curved into a wide, wicked smile. “Figured it out?”

“W-W-W-” Her lips started quivering as her eyes started to glisten. “S-Saya-chan, what are you trying to say?! Spit it out!”

“Mmm, tell me first; how did you find the chocolate cornet you ordered this morning? Describe it for me, please. And as ‘Kaoru’ as you can.”

“W-Well, the bread was like any other bread, but the chocolate tasted absolutely splendid; the sweet, luscious cocoa flavor combined with a hint of bitterness and saltiness sent my taste buds pleading for more…”

“I’m glad to hear that. Want to know the secret ingredient?”

“Uhh-”

Saya bit her index finger and showed Kaoru the oozing blood from the freshly formed cut. “Blood. Not mine, but your Chi-chan’s.”

The once flamboyant, swashbuckling Kaoru became morose and devastated after she heard what Saya had said. “Y-You killed her… for her blood…” she wailed, sniffing and coughing. “You killed her for her blood! To put in your chocolate!”

“Killed? Not just. That poor thing screamed and cried on my table for almost two hours!”

“What kind of monstrous things did you do to her?!” she shouted furiously.

“Oh, lots of things,” she replied laughing sinisterly.

Saya grabbed hold of a kitchen knife from the bottom shelf in the room where the baking utensils were stored. “Don’t worry, you’ll be joining her in the afterlife soon enough.”

“No… no… no!”

Kaoru began vigorously shaking in her binds, more powerfully than ever, enough to finally tear and loosen the curtain keeping her restrained. But just before she could undo the yarn binding her arms and legs together, Saya stepped in and grabbed her legs.

“Hey! Stop moving-”

Suddenly, Kaoru lifted her legs up and kicked Saya straight from underneath her chin, causing her to fall backwards. Unfortunately for her, who hoped that that blow would disable her for a while to buy her time to flee, Saya stood right back up with only a small gash and glared at the now-petrified Kaoru.

“Oh, ho, ho,” she smirked, wiping her newly formed wound with her hand. “You’re going to pay for that.”

Kaoru gulped. “I-I’m sorry…”

Saya held the knife and stabbed Kaoru in her left thigh, causing her to elicit a deafening scream that sounded like a siren going off. The searing pain shot up her spine and dissipated across her body, overloading her nervous system and bringing her muscles to a halt. “Nothing will save you now,” she said wiggling it around to produce enough damage to render her unable to move. Blood immediately started pouring out of the wound and onto her black pants once the knife was pulled out. Saya wiped the belly of the blade clean with her tongue afterward.

“You’re really an idiot,” she berated pushing Kaoru away with a kick. “You don’t attack people with big sharp knives!”

“Agh… ugh…” groaned Kaoru, now lying on her side with Saya looming above her like a predator about to maul its prey. “S-Saya… n-no…”

The baker girl took her by the arm and dragged her across the room near the base of the stairs, where she was made to sit with her back flat against the wall. Holding the hilt of the knife with her teeth Saya went and untied the yarn that held Kaoru’s hands together, taking extra care in case she tried to attack her again. She set the yarn aside and weaved her arms around the spaces between the wooden steps of the staircase, using the yarn to join the two together after. Once she was done she stood up and placed her foot on the first step of the stairs where Kaoru’s head now laid.

“Perfect!” she whispered eyeing her victim whose tied-up position made it almost impossible to escape from. “Now you’re really going to be stuck there.” She went back to the shelf and grabbed a smaller knife to use, the same knife that travelled up Chisato’s excretory system.

“W-What are you going to do to me?!” exclaimed Kaoru.

“Remember when I said that there will be more than towels covering your face? Well, I initially meant that there would be lots of blood, but what if there’s not going to be a face for it to cover?”

“U-Uhh…” she replied, confused by her statement.

Saya turned the knife in front of her, admiring the clean, sharp edges that glimmered under the singular light in the center of the ceiling of the room. She cut a small groove into the wall next to her to test its sharpness before proceeding to sit on top of Kaoru’s chest. She was flustered at first but her expression would be nothing compared to what Saya was going to do next.

“Look at your face so red!” she snickered, holding the tip of the knife next to her forehead. “Wonder what color it will be when I peel it off~"

“What?!” Kaoru’s eyes widened before closing rapidly while her head shook violently from side to side. “No! No! Please, no!”

The tremendous pain unfortunately started as Saya dug the sharp edge into her skin just below her hairline, causing blood to gush out and stream down the side of her nose down to her chin. The purple-haired girl writhed in immense agony for it was the only thing she could do to alleviate the pain; however, she could not even do such an action freely for Saya was both sitting on top of her immobilizing her while one of her hands was grabbing the bottom of her head to restrict her head movement. Alongside her blood tears started flowing out from the side of her closed eyes, dripping onto the steps of the staircase. A few more incisions later Saya was able to carve out a flap of skin from her forehead and pull it upward, leaving a pinkish-red patch of bloody tissue.

“No more wrinkles for Kaoru-san!” she chortled, slicing the base of the skin flap making her screech once more. She held up the bloodstained piece up to the light, showing off its slight translucency, before showing it to Kaoru.

“Hey, look! It’s your skin!” she said holding it in front of her eyes only for her to either look to the side or just close them altogether.

With half of Kaoru’s forehead now gone, Saya repeated the process on the other side, cutting down from the hairline until her eyebrows and then sideways below it till halfway between her eye and her ear. Unfortunately, the profuse discharge of blood hindered her view of the skin which, together with Kaoru’s constant shaking, caused Saya to accidentally cut too far down into her eye socket. Blood immediately seeped into the narrow space between her eye and the skin surrounding it, making Kaoru literally cry blood.

“Aaugh!” she yelled in intense pain, the blade having sliced into the upper layer of her eyeball. The right half of her field of vision gradually clouded into a deep red haze. Realizing her mistake, Saya quickly wiped off the excess blood with her apron. “Whoops, I didn't mean to do that at all!” she apologized as if that would even make a difference on the already mutilated Kaoru. “Oh, would you look at that. Your eye is turning red everywhere! Can you still see through it?”

Kaoru did not answer for her sense of hearing had practically shut down from shock.

“No? Might as well cut it off then.”

Saya squeezed the blade between the spaces of Kaoru’s damaged eyeball and severed the tissues connecting it to her brain using the bones lining the eye socket as a guide. A pulse of penetrating pain jolted across her face as her field of view shot a bright white before the right half completely faded to darkness. She then scooped the eyeball out with her fingers and cupped it in her hand, lightly squishing it between her palms every few seconds. Kaoru’s single eye stared in horror at her gouged out eye being played with like a pet toy, until she fainted when Saya dug the fingernails of her thumbs into the iris and pried the eyeball open like she was eating an orange.

Kaoru awoke when Saya had finished slicing the rest of the skin and muscle off her forehead, now in a more meticulous manner. She may have continued working sloppily, but all of a sudden she started treating this act of inhumanity as somewhat of a craft; an art form. Saya did not know why she suddenly felt this way about it, but one thing was sure for her: she was getting much more comfortable with murder and was also beginning to treat it like it was a hobby. More so, she had accumulated a lot of confidence in herself and even believed that anybody would have done such gruesome acts. Maybe it was because of her hidden fascination for radical notions, as she tells herself, but even through an untrained eye, one would immediately conjecture that this was the beginning of insanity.

The tormenting pain engulfed the entirety of Kaoru’s now incomplete face, burning her like a thousand molten iron brands being pressed upon her. That alongside the constant prodding and cutting of the sharp knife felt like she was living in hell. Many questions raced through her mind underneath her expression of misery. Most of them involved Saya, and what could possibly drive her to do such vile actions. Had she been suffering from problems all her life? If so, why would she hide it from everyone else? The always-smiling drummer of Poppin’ Party, concealing her true self to the world? Her thoughts then shifted to her best friend that she now knew was very well deceased. What had Saya done to the poor girl? What crimes against humanity did she do to Chi-chan? The image of Chisato with a body rife with bruises and lacerations burned a hole in her mind. She felt her throat constrict and her tears well up again only to flow down her face as thick, dark blood.

“Forehead: done,” Saya spoke to herself like she had a checklist to fulfill. “Maybe your cheeks could be up next.”

“No… no more!” Kaoru cried out, weakly resting her head on the side of the steps. “K-Kill me… please! I can’t bear the agony anymore…”

Saya groused. “Come on, Kaoru-san. That’s no fun at all! You’ll be dying soon enough; all you have to do is be patient! Death will come when it will come.”

Kaoru stayed silent for a few seconds before she slowly closed her eyelids and coughed. “W-Who are you?! What happened to the Saya-chan I once knew?”

“You can say that I am but a shadow of myself.”

“T-That’s-”

“Ehehe,” Saya gave her a wink before inserting her knife under the skin of Kaoru’s left cheek resuming her work and her victim’s screeching. No bones existed underneath so she was careful to make the cut shallow enough to not pierce inside her mouth. She was slowly getting better at her technique, handling the knife more expertly this time and making fewer mistakes. She was confident enough to extend all the way around the bottom of Kaoru’s chin to the other side and even managed to keep the whole thing intact upon removing it. Feeling very proud of her achievement, she decided to keep the rectangular-shaped piece of skin and placed it on the side for her to store later. 

Blood continued to soak the wooden steps below as the last of the skin on Kaoru’s face, near and on top of her nose and mouth, was taken out, this time piece by piece since it was difficult to keep such a thin layer of derma intact all throughout, though Saya made an effort to try to keep the lips together. Kaoru slowly began to drown in the blood that entered her nostrils and filled the cavity of her nose, some trickling down into her throat where she could almost taste it. She could hardly breathe either way, due to the different fluids stuck in her airways exacerbated by the weight of a murderer pressing on her lungs. She had been longing for the dagger to finally be thrust into her chest, or substance to quickly poison her organs, but a slow, agonizing death wound up being her ultimate fate.

“Ow, ow,” murmured Saya standing up after sitting uncomfortably on top of Kaoru for a long time, finally giving her a chance to breathe properly. She examined Kaoru’s face from afar and told herself that she had done a pretty good job. One would barely spot a specimen of skin amidst the pink, red, and purple shades of her serrated and swollen swathes of tissue now fully exposed to the elements. Saya took out her phone and turned on the front camera, facing the screen towards Kaoru. 

"Care to critique my work, Kaoru-san?" 

Kaoru could only stare in horror at the screen with her mouth wide open. Her face had been reduced to nothing more than a field of bloody flesh, not to mention the missing eye, where a small appendage was all that was left of it. Saya took a quick snapshot before turning off her phone. 

“I think I had enough fun for today,” she said wiping the sweat off her forehead with the sleeve of her shirt. “It’s also getting rather late; I still have to get up early for school tomorrow! Too bad you won’t be able to, Kaoru-san. Oh, well. Guess it’s time for Hello, Happy World to find a new guitarist…”

Kaoru, whilst sputtering blood from her mouth, muttered: “Only now do you decide to kill me… what kind of depraved, corrupt, merciless being are you?”

“Oh, so you think I’m merciless?” Saya shot back angrily. “At least I had enough mercy this time to not have made you endure what Chisato-san had been through!”

“I… I wouldn’t call this mercy…”

“So you want the same experience as Chisato-san? So be it!”

Saya searched the room for something until she found what she was looking for hidden in a box underneath some paper waste. When Kaoru got a glimpse of what she was holding then, she knew that was going to be the end of her.

“This,” she said, holding the wooden rolling pin full of protruding nails in front of Kaoru. “This is what killed Chisato-san.”

The several bloodstains absorbed into the wood and the rusty, bent nails were enough for Kaoru to envision how much suffering her beloved friend had been through. “Oh my…”

Saya continued talking without any remorse in her voice. “I forced this thing all the way inside her vagina, sending her crying and screaming like a chicken getting culled. I also used this to snap every bone and tear every muscle in her arms and legs. Maybe in your case, I can smash this against your head until you start extruding pieces of brain from your empty eye socket!”

“No!” she shouted. “After all you’ve done to Chisato… I… I can’t believe you’d still do it all over again! Where… Where did your humanity go, Saya?”

“Kaoru-san, I never lost my humanity. Every living being in the universe, including us humans, was born with the innate ability to kill. In this dangerous, unforgiving world it is but essential for a creature's survival. I killed her because I needed to survive; my entire family to survive. It was her that finally brought back our customers; the source of our income which in turn is the determinant of our continuance. When humans commit the ‘inhumane’ act of murder, have they immediately lost their humanities only because they performed one of their fundamental capabilities?”

Shocked by the psychopath’s incredible answer, no more words left the purple-haired girl’s mouth. Saya had become spellbound to her own imaginary constitution.

“Good.” She flashed a smirk and hurled her weapon away. “Now do you understand? It's just that my method of killing is more creative than others. You’re just trapped in a shell of your own conscience. Me? I govern it.”

Kaoru fell silent as Saya walked up to the kitchen to wash her knife and get a container she was going to use to collect Kaoru’s blood. The Tupperware containers that she used to collect Chisato’s were clean and neatly stacked inside a cabinet, so she took the topmost one. Seeing the hour hand on the clock on the wall past ten, she needed to work double-time for her parents would question why she came home so late. Carrying the container down the stairs she saw that her victim had stopped moving completely.

“Hey, Kaoru-san,” she said, shaking her body. “You can’t be asleep during your own execution!”

Kaoru was awake, but she did not want to speak to Saya anymore. She did not want to waste her saliva talking to a lunatic who had such a warped perspective on human life. Better to just let her end her life quietly without any further arguments than speak words that would grant her a more gruesome death. 

"Hmph, fine then."

Saya used the knife to cut the yarn binding Kaoru to the stairs and unwinded her arms from the steps. She then took her by the legs and pulled her a few feet away from the base of the stairs. Kneeling down she propped Kaoru's arms over her shoulders and, with all her strength, lifted her entire body onto the table in the center of the room, lying on her belly. Finally, she dragged her head to the edge of the table over the container that was already set up below. 

As the now dying Kaoru stared at the empty container where her head now hung over, droplets of blood splashing down onto its transparent surface, a set of words dashed through her mind. It was another passage from one of the writings of her favorite bard. _Thus I die. Thus, thus, thus. Now I am dead, now I am fled. My soul is in the sky. Tongue, lose thy light. Moon take thy flight. Now die, die, die, die._ Her brain really was filled to the brim with quotes, wasn’t it? Even in the final seconds of her life, she could not think of anything else but her quotes. Quotes that formed much of the personality that defined Kaoru Seta. 

"This is the end, is it?" she whispered to herself, a single tear dripping down onto the small puddles of blood below. Saya was able to hear her and crossed her arms. 

"Oh, now you're awake. Well, anything you want to say before saying goodbye to the world?" she asked holding the blade of the knife right next to her neck. "If you're curious, Chisato-san's last words were about me being a human scum. At least she still called me human."

Kaoru shook her head. 

“Okay, say hi to her for me,” Saya said pulling the knife back towards her, drawing out Kaoru’s final gasp before her slit open throat spewed fresh, dark red blood into the container below. _Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once._ Kaoru’s last thought flashed briefly in her mind before her consciousness quickly vanished into emptiness. A content smile formed on her now lifeless face, knowing that the pain was now over and that she’ll finally have eternity with her Chi-chan.

The next day, Saya woke up and prepared for school like any other day. The news that her recent victim had also gone missing was all over her news feed in her social media. Almost every single person she knew at school had published posts hoping for Chisato and Kaoru’s safety. It was almost unbelievable seeing how much people cared about two missing girls, even if they did not know them all too well. She typed up a post herself just in case anyone would not be suspicious of her for not posting anything.

As she was taking a shower, she was already expecting this Monday school day to be even more depressing than it already is. In fact, today would probably be the first time the world would ever witness Hello, Happy World! somber and cheerless. Plus, it wasn’t long before the students would start pointing fingers at who could have done it. All Saya could hope for was that she hid the two bodies well enough that it would take at least several days for them to be found, sufficient time for her to try and frame somebody else. But who was the perfect person to frame? That was the question she tried to answer as she traveled to school.


End file.
